


This Time Around

by ParadoxDefined, sarahlaurengaydos



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-11
Updated: 2015-07-03
Packaged: 2018-02-12 16:57:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2117697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParadoxDefined/pseuds/ParadoxDefined, https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahlaurengaydos/pseuds/sarahlaurengaydos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony and Bruce let things get out of hand in the lab, resulting in two new members to the Avengers. The Avengers and its new members must find common ground and unite against a new nationwide threat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Impressions

**Author's Note:**

> Written with my best friend, sarahlaurengaydos (tumblr user sgtbuckywintercap), with additional help from our mom.
> 
> My tumblr username is miss-paradoxical, so if you wanna chat or follow me, that's where I am!

Nick Fury was not pleased. He watched Tony Stark with a constant glare, letting him know exactly how he felt about being dragged out to an undisclosed location in the Pacific Ocean. They were aboard Stark Industries’ transoceanic laboratory ship. The fact that Tony had dragged them to the middle of the ocean to show them some project made him think that this was going to be a big headache.

Steve Rogers stood to Fury’s left. He looked peeved about being in the middle of God-knows-where too, especially at the request of Tony Stark. Tony had welcomed them into a brightly lit room with a panel of controls and a long, human-sized capsule. Bruce was plugging away on a keyboard next to the capsule when they entered. Since Bruce was lost in his own world of biology and applied sciences, Nick turned to Tony.

“Dammit, Tony. What is this? I don’t need any more bad publicity. Did you two do something illegal?” he asked, staring at Tony with a look that could wither even the most cheerful flower.

“We’re good, Nick. We’re in international waters and that means they don’t have this kind of thing covered in the rulebook,” Tony said, hopping on one of the stools that sat in front of one of the panels. He spun around on the stool and looked over Bruce’s shoulder. Tony appeared satisfied; Bruce looked annoyed.

“Wait. Just wait a second. The last time I saw a human-sized tube like that, a bad thing happened, Stark. What is this? Why are we here?” Steve asked, clearly wanting some straightforward answers.

“Relax, Captain Patriot, or whatever you call yourself—” Tony started

“I call myself Steve,” he replied with a definite edge in his voice.

“Right. Well, you know what happened when we tried to make Bucky a new arm?”

Both Steve and Nick looked alarmed the moment he brought the incident up. Bucky, who had been quietly looking around the lab since they arrived, looked up at the mention of it. Bucky was still adjusting to life with the Avengers. His adjustment, however, was like that of a skittish animal that was learning the touch of a friendly hand for the first time.

“What the hell, Tony?” Nick asked, his voice growing louder.

“You see, we tried to replicate Bucky’s DNA to reconstruct an arm in a process similar to cloning. Now cloning is generally not permitted in most countries, and that was not our intent anyway. We weren’t trying to clone an entire human. Just the arm. We did it successfully, but with the rest of the body attached…and alive…and female. Something went wonky with the Y chromosome and we got another X instead. In short, a female Bucky,” Bruce said, breaking from his work to explain the science.

“We know you created a girl Bucky. It happened and we’re attempting to deal with it. I suppose she’s still with Natasha and Hill back at Stark Tower,” Nick said, getting impatient.

‘Right. Well, I, uh, decided to snip some hair off of Steve over there, to keep on file just in case he ever lost a limb, or four,” Tony answered matter-of-factly.

“You what?” Steve asked, riled by Tony’s flippant attitude toward his personal space.

“Oh, I got curious. I wondered what you would look like as a female, Cap. For science, of course,” Tony continued, smiling at Steve.

“I’m going to kill him,” Steve said calmly, looking at Nick as if he were waiting for a signal.

“I didn’t exactly know about this. Tony started the process,” Bruce said, looking over and pointing at Stark, “But he had trouble stabilizing her. Once she was alive, well, I couldn’t just let her die, so I had to step in to help,” Bruce explained.

“Who let you two work together?” Steve asked, exasperated beyond belief.

“I think we ought to meet her,” Bucky suddenly said in a calm voice.

Everyone stared at Bucky, but he seemed unfazed by the attention. Steve sighed and shook his head. He really wanted to kill Tony, he truly did, but he knew better than that. Thankfully Bucky was around, still keeping him from tussling. He had seemed indifferent when he found out he was accidently cloned as a female. Steve, however, had been pissed. Now, he was livid. The science nerds had crossed a line, _twice_ now, but what was done was done. They couldn’t undo it now.

“Might as well,” Nick agreed with a resigned, but sour, face.

Steve managed a nod, but he was still shaking in anger.

Bruce bent over and tapped away on his keyboard again. After a moment, the capsule opened. She stood there with her eyes closed, her blonde hair tousled from the confines of the tube. She resembled Steve in obvious ways, but she was softer. Everyone was stunned and speechless. Everyone but Tony of course.

“You look good, Steve,” Tony said with a sarcastic sidelong glance at him.

If Steve hadn’t been so shocked, he would have jumped over the console and wrapped his hands around Tony’s neck.

The blonde’s eyes shot open. Everyone jumped back, and Steve instinctively reached for his shield. Bucky gently took his wrist and put it down, reminding him to be wary, but not rash. Her strikingly blue eyes jumped to each of them, regarding each of them with bewilderment. No one moved. If she was an exact copy of Steve, then she had his super soldier abilities. The last thing they needed was a spooked clone of Captain America wreaking havoc on a floating laboratory filled with hazardous materials.

A noise came from the woman. It was an awkward groan, like she was testing out her vocal chords for the first time. After a moment, she managed to clear her throat. Her lips parted as she looked at Tony directly.

“Can I get out of this now?” she asked in a shockingly clear voice.

“Fine, fine,” Tony answered with a groan, “The groaning was a nice touch though.”

She rolled her eyes and lithely hopped out of the huge tube. Nick, Steve, and Bucky just stared. She didn’t waste a moment before walking straight up to Steve and sizing him up with her eyes. “So I came from your DNA? This all feels weird. I’m not sure how I should address you. Steve? Mr. Rogers? Captain? Captain Steve? Captain Rogers? Captain America? Regardless, it’s really nice to meet you,” she said eagerly and held out her hand.

Steve stared at her with wide eyes, his mind reeling. It really was like looking in a mirror, but with a woman looking back instead. What was bizarre was how adjusted she seemed compared to the female clone of Bucky, who had come out wildly looking around her. The female clone of Bucky had made him remember how Bucky had shown up at Stark Tower, wild eyed and desperately looking for him.

“She’s…” Nick began, unsure how to finish his sentence.

“Well-adjusted?” Tony offered, an impish grin on his face, “Yeah, she is.”

“The truth is, she’s been awake about a month. Tony just wanted to put her back in there for dramatic effect,” Bruce said sheepishly as he hid a grin behind his mug of tea while taking a drink, “I…uh…played along. But don’t worry, Steve. Tony didn’t create her on a whim. It turns out Bucky’s hair sample was contaminated with yours.”

“What?” Steve asked, still trying to understand and adding after a pause, “I did give Bucky a haircut when he showed up at Stark Tower. He had more than a few bad knots that were going to be a mess to untangle. Is that when our hair got mixed together?”

“That’s likely. Her self-assurance came through a sort of crash course on being human,” Tony explained further, motioning towards the female “Steve”. “She’s incredibly smart. She’s read about two hundred books. I don’t know where that comes from”, looking pointedly at Steve, “You should be honored. She’s read your biography over and over.”

The woman suddenly looked embarrassed as she picked up a worn book that sat next to Bruce. She handed it to Steve with an embarrassed smile.

“Would you mind signing it?” she asked, suddenly less aggressive than she had been previously, “I like reading it because sometimes I feel like I remember the things written in there, like boot camp. I remember the feeling of my boots sinking in the mud as the rain came down mercilessly, how it felt to be chilled to the bone with so much gear weighing me down. I remember my lungs feeling like they were almost ready to burst from the seemingly endless running. But then I remember growing up with Bucky. I remember this one night on the railroad tracks, but it wasn’t in the book. I remember being a kid, walking beside Bucky and throwing pebbles at the tracks for no good reason, and –”

“Stop,” Steve interrupted as he stared straight through her, “Don’t say anything more.”

Any levity in the room had evaporated. Even Tony sensed the heavy atmosphere and refrained from speaking.

“Those are my memories. Mine. Tony, what gave you the right?” Steve said, his voice icy as he spun on Tony.

Both Bruce and Tony looked baffled. Neither of them had known she had his memories. She hadn’t said so. Bucky’s clone hadn’t, so they were not expecting Steve’s to either. In addition, there was no logical reason for her to have any of his memories. She was a clone, sure, but she had not gone through his life experiences first-hand.

“Steve, we didn’t know,” Bruce said quietly.

Steve said nothing as he stared a hole into the floor. He believed Bruce, but he was still angry. Those memories from his adolescence were sacred to him. In those days it was just him and Bucky, and they were determined to take on the world. It was a naïve and childish notion, but it was theirs. That was before he let Bucky down, before he couldn’t get to him in time, before HYDRA had gotten to him. It was their golden age. He was learning to accept what had happened to Bucky and move forward together, but this…this brought his guilt to the forefront of his mind once again. He couldn’t take it. Wordlessly, he left the room, leaving everyone else stunned.

“I’ll go get him,” Bucky said as he followed Steve out.

“He may need some help,” said Nick going after them, glaring at Tony.

“Did I do something wrong?” the female “Steve” asked, looking both hurt and confused.

Tony shook his head and answered, “No, it wasn’t you. Give him some time. I know he’s your hero and all, but he’s got some serious issues from his past. He blames himself for things beyond his control. It’s not you, so buck up. You’re fine. How would you like to meet the rest of the Avengers?”

“Can I?” she asked, elated at the prospect. She looked to Bruce and back at Tony as if asking her dads for permission.

“Hey, now. You don’t need our permission. You’re a full-fledged adult,” Bruce said with a reassuring smile.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Bucky rounded yet another corner in the labyrinth that Tony Stark called a ship. Steve needed a minute to get his thoughts together, but he would come out of it in one piece. He always did. He finally found Steve leaning against a wall in one of the hallways. Bucky took the spot next to him and glanced over. Steve’s arms were crossed, and he was looking at the floor intently. Bucky said nothing for a moment, and then he decided to interrupt the silence.

“That was something else,” he offered, giving Steve an opportunity to unload. It worked.

“You can’t even remember our childhood together. Why is it that Tony and Bruce can’t help you remember, but they create some sort of aberration that can? Is she even human? What do I even _do_ with this? I mean, what is she to me exactly? I just can’t believe she has the memories we’ve been so desperately trying to get you to recall. There is no fairness in it. It’s almost cruel,” Steve said, growing quieter near the end of his harangue.

Bucky let him settle a moment. Steve Rogers didn’t let many people see him like this, not that it occurred often. This was an extreme situation, and Steve was responding with anger and uncertainty. For Bucky, finding out he had been cloned was confusing, but he was not angry. Bruce and Tony had the best of intentions, but he had wished they had consulted him first. He didn’t want his flesh and blood arm back. They thought replacing the arm that HYDRA had affixed to him might help get him back to his old self, but they had the wrong idea. He didn’t see the metal arm as an oppressive reminder of his past; it reminded him of how strong he could be. He was able to remember the time he spent with HYDRA as they made him into the Winter Soldier. They tortured him in every way imaginable, but he wouldn’t break. It took careful planning and systematic methods to finally break him, but he had held out much longer than most people would have. He held on for Steve. In his sleep-deprived condition, they had shown him a corpse wearing a uniform identical to Steve’s. It wasn’t him, of course, but he couldn’t tell since he was practically hallucinating at that point. Seeing the lifeless body of whom he believed was Steve Rogers was the final blow that made him give up. It was clever of HYDRA, he had to give them that. He wouldn’t have believed the newspapers reporting Steve’s death; he would have had to see the dead body himself to believe it.

By that point, he was putty in their hands. He stopped resisting them, too tired and too sick to keep their mind games at bay. Yes, HYDRA had supplied him with his metal arm, and yes, he had spilled so much blood using it. However, that same arm saved Steve from drowning when he went down with Bucky in the helicarrier, and for that, he loved it.

Bucky had taken the existence of his clone in stride. After all he had been through, it just didn’t seem like that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. He remembered that he had left to get his thoughts together and that after aimless wandering and pondering where he would go, he had decided to find out more about the Steve Rogers the public knew. He had heard about the Captain America exhibit in the National Air and Space Museum and had paid a visit to the exhibit, but he was not expecting the effect it had on him. The old wartime footage and memorabilia instantly sparked memories of the war, of Steve, and of HYDRA, memories that he himself had forgotten that he had. He had a mental breakdown in the middle of the exhibit. No one recognized him as Bucky Barnes with his haggard, half-crazed appearance, but he did have a destination burned into his mind: Stark Tower. That was where he could start looking for Steve. He was part of the Avengers and so was Stark (Howard's son?), so he decided to go looking around there. He recognized now that his decision made little sense, but it was one that had actually yielded results.

Bucky remembered that when he had arrived at Stark Tower, he had probably looked sightly psychotic when he had asked the men at the security station to speak with Steve Rogers. The guards had thought he was just a crazy bum, and just when they were about to escort him out, Tony Stark himself had showed up, looking just like how Bucky remembered Howard. Tony had later explained that he had programmed JARVIS to recognize Bucky’s face, should he should show up on the premises, and alert him immediately. Tony was cautious at first, probably because he could see how fragile Bucky was under his crazed countenance. He had called for Steve immediately, who had just gotten back to New York from some trip, if Bucky remembered correctly...

“Steve,” Bucky said, interrupting his own thoughts of the past, “I know it’s confusing, but I’m not angry about this. You’re mad, but not for yourself. You’re angry for me, for my lost memories, but don’t be. Don’t take it out on her. She didn’t ask to have your memories. In fact, she didn’t even ask to exist, but she does and you can’t hold that against her. Whatever she started out as, a glob of DNA or whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. She’s a sentient human now. We’ll adapt, yeah? We always do. At least, that’s what you tell me.” He smiled and searched Steve’s face for some sign of calm.

Steve actually let out a little laugh and said, “Yeah, that we do. I know I’m not being fair. I just don’t know what to do with her. It’s almost like I suddenly have a twin sister. How do you suddenly have a twin sister at our age? I don’t know, Bucky. I’ll work this out in my head, but I need some time.”

Bucky nodded; he understood. Steve would come around. He probably will end up liking her, but for now he needed space from his new clone. He would talk to Nick about getting separate transports back to the Avengers Tower. He could ask Nick to say that Steve had an obligation to attend a march for the armed forces in California, which is why they would take separate transports. That would avoid any hurt feelings. Steve actually had such an obligation, but not for two more weeks.

“Wait here. I’ll ask if Tony has a spare helicopter or something lying around. Rich guys, huh?” he asked with a small grin, actually managing to pull a chuckle out of Steve.

“ _There he is_ ,” Bucky thought to himself, relieved to see the wry smile Steve flashed whenever one of them made a playful jab at Tony.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

She was finally getting her land legs. She had even made it out of the elevator without falling, only tripping slightly; being on land was proving to be a challenge after living the entire span of her life so far on a ship. Tony and Bruce stepped out after her, Bruce making sure that she didn’t fall flat on her face (again) while Tony absentmindedly did something on his cell phone (which he of course designed). She stopped at the top of a small set of stairs, taking in the room in front of her. Tony had explained with virtual blueprints the layout of the Avengers Tower on the trip over. It had only taken a few minutes for her to memorize the layout of the tower and its plethora of floors, but seeing it in person was different. The ship that she had been on for the past month wasn’t without its comforts. She had been given her own room, had been to a library, had meals with them in a kitchen, and had watched television with Tony in a living room with a bar. This room was similar to the layout but bigger. One whole wall was windows and a door that led out to a large balcony overlooking the city. To her right was a bar area, which Tony had made a beeline for immediately after they exited the elevator, appearing to actively avoid the left side of the room.

That side of the room, which Bruce was guiding her to now, had two huge couches with a large glass table and two armchairs between them. These chairs faced a large fireplace, a real one, not like the fake one on the ship. On one side of the fireplace was a door, leading to the stairwell. Bruce stopped her behind the chairs, and she looked at the four people in front of her, three of them on one couch and one on the other. Fury, she remembered. She recognized the two women sitting next to him as Agent Hill and Natasha Romanoff from the files that Bruce had given to her to acquaint her with the rest of the Avengers. The woman sitting alone and curled up on the couch, arms around her knees, she only knew as the female clone of Bucky, as that was what Tony and Bruce called her. Barefoot and dressed in a hoodie and sweatpants, she did resemble the Bucky she met, the only difference besides being female was that she had both of her arms and not a metal prosthesis. Short messy brown hair could be seen under the hood of her jacket. Wearing a look of someone who was being thrown into an immersion crash course of life and was way in over her head, the woman turned to look at her and Bruce before turning to gaze back out the window.

“How’s she doing?” Bruce asked Natasha, inclining his head towards the woman.

“She doesn’t talk much, and when she does, it’s not always in English. Whatever Bucky can do, she can do, including knowing multiple languages and not remembering anything. This her?”

“Yes, this is – “

“Steve’s girl clone,” a voice said behind them as a man dropped down from the rafters above, landing next to Tony, who spilled his newly-made drink in surprise. She recognized him as Clint Barton as he walked toward them, leaving Tony softly swearing at him under his breath as he cleaned up the mess.

“Thank you, Mr. Tact,” Hill said, standing up as her phone started ringing, Fury following suit. They walked out the doors leading to the balcony, Hill giving Steve’s clone a once over as she passed. Shrugging, Clint perched on the back of the couch next to Natasha, eyeing them with an observant look.

“Well, that’s all we can call her, just like she’s Bucky’s girl clone,” Clint said, gesturing across the table, “You braincases didn’t think to give them real names? Basically calling them Thing One and Two just doesn’t seem right to me.”

“We are in the room, you know,” Steve’s clone interrupted, a hint of irritation creeping into her voice, “Whether she and I are clones or not, we’re still human in every sense of the word.”

Clint immediately apologized, saying, “Right, sorry. None of us meant any offense. We just don’t exactly have anything to call you besides ‘she’ and ‘her’. Hey” – he called, catching the female Bucky’s attention – “What do you want your name to be? Bucky Two is just sounding tacky in my head.”

Raising an eyebrow at him, the woman answered quietly in a foreign language, her voice clear and with strength, before returning her gaze out the windows. Natasha half smiled, turning her head to look at Clint, who had a perplexed look on his face.

“She said ‘What could I call myself when I don’t know who I am?’”

“Fair point,” Clint conceded, turning to look at her and Bruce. “What about you, Steve Two? Do you know who you are?”

“Vaguely, I suppose,” she responded. “I remember some of the things that he – I mean Steve – did. I remember more and more as time goes on.”

Natasha raised an eyebrow at Bruce, who just shrugged. Clint seemed fascinated, and regarded her with consideration.

“Have you thought of reversing his name? Going by the feminine version?”

“Hmm,” Tony mused, making his way over, his remade drink in hand. He walked over and sat next to Bucky's clone, oblivious to the prickly look she gave him. “Let’s see. That would make you Stephanie Grace Rogers, bookworm, and Little Miss Talkative next to me would be Jamie Rebecca Barnes. God knows that those two popsicles can just keep their middle names to themselves. These are better.”

“Rebecca? Stephanie? Can’t call them that all the time, Stark. Three syllable names are a pain,” Clint grumbled, “No offense, Nat.”

“Point taken, Katniss, but let the ladies decide,” Tony said, gesturing to his left and right.

“I like it. You could call me Stevie for short, if you prefer,” the newly dubbed Stevie answered.

“I like it better than Steve Two. What about you?” Clint asked, trying and failing to catch the woman’s eye. Tony poked her knees to get her attention, causing her to jump and fall off the back of the couch.

Standing up fluidly, she glared at Tony, cautiously walking away from him and towards Stevie and Bruce, saying, “It’s fine. Becky’s good, but don’t call me Jamie.” Pausing, she studied Stevie, as she continued on past to the stairwell door. She exchanged a look with Bruce, and the door closed silently behind her.

Bruce looked over at Natasha who nodded, resigned. She stood up and pulled Clint along with her. They left the room through the same door leading to the stairs. Clint waved at Stevie, giving her a half smile as the door closed.

“Did I miss something? What was that all about?” Stevie asked, looking at Bruce and Tony.

“She, I mean Becky, is having a hard time adapting. She doesn’t have Bucky’s memories, like you have Steve’s. Because of that, she doesn’t have the same sense of identity as you, nor the resources you had as there are no books written about Bucky Barnes,” Bruce said, looking towards the stairwell door, concern coloring his voice.

“Give her time, she’ll be fine,” Tony said, setting his glass down and standing up. He glanced out the window, watching Hill and Fury greet the STARK INDUSTRIES helicopter landing on the small helipad outside. Clearing his throat and sounding slightly nervous, he turned to Stevie and Bruce, smiling a little more than normal, and stared to push them towards the elevator. “Let’s go find your room,” he said brightly as he shoved them into the elevator and the doors closed behind them. Bruce raised an eyebrow and gave Tony a bemused look. Tony actively avoided making eye contact as he prattled on about living arrangements for Becky and Stevie.


	2. Growing Pains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Get inside Becky's head as she gets used to her crazy mixed-up life and take a morning jog with Sam, Steve, and Stevie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long! Life's been pretty busy.   
> Come on over to Tumblr and find us!   
> (sgtbuckywintercap and miss-paradoxical)

Stevie had heard Tony say that he didn't play well with others, but she didn't believe it. She knew that Stark Tower had taken heavy damage when the Avengers faced off with Loki, leaving Tony with the daunting task of rebuilding. Instead of rebuilding it exactly as it had been, he created a home base of sorts for the group he now considered his friends. Not only that, but he had reserved an entire floor for each person. Maybe he didn't play well with others, but he had designed the new tower with others in mind and that made Stevie think he played better than he realized.

Becky had been staying in Natasha’s guest room, and Bruce wondered how she would feel about a roommate. They would each have plenty of room, so they shouldn't have many problems with personal space, but they were both still very new to the world and that left room for the unexpected. There was the possibility of finding Stevie a room on someone else’s floor, but none of them seemed like a good option. Meanwhile, Tony was thinking that Becky and Stevie would be good for each other.

“This is all for three people?” Stevie asked in a quiet voice, marveling at her surroundings as she stepped off the elevator.

“Sorry about that. We had a floor for each person, but we hadn't planned for additional people,” Tony said, misinterpreting her completely.

“I think she means it’s a lot for three people,” Bruce whispered to Tony as he watched her walk further into the living area.

Tony was reminded that the ship was not nearly as open and spacey as the floors in Stark Tower. Stevie had never complained about being cramped; she wasn't, but she was not used to excess space either. He felt a certain fondness come over him as he watched her head directly for the bookshelf. He felt strangely proud of her, not because he had essentially helped make her, but because of the progress she had made in so little time. She was adaptive, smart, and a quick study. She was a clone, but she was more than that too, and he hoped Steve would come around and see that. After all, he had.

When she had first gained consciousness, it took her a few days to feel well enough to get up and move around. She could talk and was as intelligent as Steve was, so there was no need for any sort of lessons on how to be human. She did not know anything about current events, history, or pop culture, however, and both Tony and Bruce took the entire month helping her prepare to enter society. At first Tony had regarded her as a slight nuisance with the way she would follow him into his lab, constantly questioning him about his tinkering. His irritation faded, however, when she asked to start a few projects of her own. He realized that she had listened intently to all of his answers and was actually trying to learn from him.

“Don’t get absorbed in any books just yet,” Bruce said, “We still have to show you where you’ll be staying. You'll have to share a room with Becky, but it’s pretty spacious. She doesn't always stay there though. She’s our couch-hopper.”

“No problem,” Stevie answered with a shrug. Sharing wasn't a big deal to her. She actually wanted to get to know Becky. Their respective original copies were the best of friends after all.

Tony and Bruce excused themselves once they showed her where her room was. They wanted to give her some privacy after she had seen so many new faces. She probably needed some time to take everything in. Tony had invited her to join everyone for dinner later. There was a new ramen shop that had caught his eye, and he had annoyed everyone about for weeks until they had finally agreed to go with him. He couldn't fathom why. The shawarma restaurant had gone over pretty well. His eye for restaurants could be trusted.

“Yeah, sure, Dad. I’ll join you and Mom for dinner,” Stevie had responded with a bratty little smile.

“Aw, she’s taking after you, dear,” Bruce said jokingly as he elbowed Tony.

“I created a female Steve, but raised her with my sarcasm. Dear God, what have I done?” Tony said, as if he was just now realizing this.

Stevie then promptly kicked them both out so she could unwind a little. She looked around the room, which had been outfitted with two beds on each side of the room. There was no sort of divider to separate her space from Becky’s, but she didn't worry about it for herself. She just didn't want Becky to feel like she was overtaking her space. To be safe, she stayed on the side of the room that she assumed was hers because it had a bookshelf filled with books. Tony had asked her to list some books she wanted to read, but didn't say why. As she perused the contents of the shelf, she realized they were all there. She would have hugged him if he were there, whether he liked it or not. She had a habit of forgetting how strong she was and squeezing just a bit too hard. She looked to the left of her bookshelf, where a laptop sat on a desk. She opened it and a welcome message popped up, written by Bruce.

_Hey, kid. Hope you like your new place. Visit me a few floors up if you want some Zen lessons._  
_-Bruce_

She smiled at the gesture. They really had gone all out to make her feel welcome, but… She glanced over at Becky’s side of the room, but there weren't many personal effects there. Bruce had said she didn't always use the room, so maybe that was why. Stevie smiled to herself as she picked out a book about social media for beginners from the shelf and flopped on her bed to read it.

 

* * *

 

Life wasn't easy for Bucky’s clone. She felt like everyone was weirded out by her mere existence, especially since she was only supposed to be her original’s replacement left arm. “Who the hell is Bucky?” were her first words. She had no memories of a past life, no idea who she was and who she should be. Of course, the science boys had a theory on that, just like they have a theory for everything.

“It’s because Bucky spent the past 70 years being tortured and brainwashed,” Bruce, the more tolerable one, said, “He doesn't even remember everything, though over time, it is all coming back to him. Maybe it’s the same for you.”

Tony, the annoying one, kept testing her limits, her vitals, everything, to see how she stacked up to the original. Clearly, she didn't disappoint, as he was always chipper and excited about the results, making comments about a Six Million Dollar Man and a Bionic Woman.

They shipped her off to their home base, a skyscraper in the heart of New York City, with Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. They hoped that more time with the original, his best friend, and all of their friends, would help sort out her mind. It didn't, and she started keeping to herself, not speaking much and investigating everything. She was given a room to sleep in, yet she hated the feeling of being confined, probably from her test tube days. She took to sleeping on different couches each night, sneaking in after they fell asleep and leaving before they awakened. Clint always left his door open and snored. Natasha left out a thick blanket, since she blasted the air conditioner on arctic setting. Thor had a sleepwalking problem and that creeped her out. Tony’s floor was full of JARVIS, his AI that freaked her out and she actively avoided.  Steve and Bucky lived on the same floor, yet they both tended to have terrible nightmares that caused them to wake up and never go back to sleep.  She tended to sleep on Bruce’s floor, especially since he and Tony hadn't been here the whole time.

During the day, she roamed the different levels set aside for the Avengers (that’s what this group of weird friends was called), and actively avoided JARVIS. She found the war room with a connected armory, the jet hangar, a kitchen that takes took up half a floor, a movie room with wall to wall couches, the medical bay, and a workout room that spans spanned an entire floor and stocked with everything she could need or can imagine. Her favorite place, however, was the roof. Hardly anyone went up there, and she loved to be alone. The wind was insane up there, but if she sat just right against the doorway, it didn't bother her. The city spread out all around, and looked so small below her. It was the place she could disconnect from it all, where she could just be her and not “Bucky Two” or “Bucky’s Girl Clone”. It’s also where she went when the memories started coming.

Bruce was right; he just didn't know which memories she was going to get first. He probably hoped, for the sake of Steve and Bucky (and probably for her), that the pre-WWII or Howling Commandos memories would be the first to show up. She had listened to Steve talking to Bucky about their past, and she had heard enough to get by. Bucky never talked about his Winter Soldier days, and she knew why, because those memories were the first to surface. The assassinations, the long hunts that would go on for days, the mask and goggles to hide her, the cryo tube. Not to mention the brainwashing and the torture. She was relieved that Bruce was gone so no one could hear her wake up screaming every night. She avoided being touched by anyone.

Then Bruce and Tony came home, with a female clone of Steve in tow. Clint and Tony tossed names around and assigned names to the two of them: Stevie and Becky. Steve was clearly less than thrilled to have a clone, even less thrilled than when Becky showed up. He actively avoided Stevie at dinner that night, and avoided Becky too, but that was not entirely new. Steve had always been unsure about her existence since day one. Bucky, however, didn't like leaving her alone for too long and even sat with her on the roof from time to time. She figured that his protector/big brother instincts had kicked in towards her. It wasn't too bad, just overwhelming.

Bruce and Tony gave half of her designated room to Stevie, who apparently was a huge bookworm. It didn't bother her, since she was never in there to begin with. When she went to return the shoes that Natasha and Clint had brought to her earlier (they all hated it when she went on the roof barefoot, which is where they had found her), Stevie was curled up on her bed, reading a book the size of a brick. Noticing that Becky had walked into the room, she popped up off of the bed, discarded her book, and approached, full of energy, hugging her full force, which caused Becky to mentally shut down and reboot.

“Hi, I know we haven’t been properly introduced, and I hope that you don’t feel like I’m intruding on your space, but I’m Stevie. I hope that we can be friends, although I kinda feel like we already are. I keep remembering things about Bucky, and it’s like I’m remembering you. I know I sound crazy and weird, but given our situation, crazy and weird are basically normal, don’t you think?”

“Не беспокойтесь о пространстве, я никогда не здесь. Рассмотрим твое…wait, that was in Russian, sorry…I mean…Don't worry about the space, I'm never here. Consider it yours.” Stevie gave her a look, like she’s not quite sure how to respond. Becky figured that it was because she had never really mastered the art of proper verbal communication, though she was pretty good at conveying thoughts with looks and body language.

“Becky,” she pleaded, “I want to share this room, make it both of ours.” She looked at Becky’s nightstand. The only things sitting there were a lamp, an alarm clock, a journal with a set of pencils from Sam Wilson, an unused STARK cell phone from Tony, and a sliver laptop that Bruce gave her. Her wall was one big window and her closet full of hand-me-downs from the other Avengers. Stevie’s side was mostly covered by a huge bookshelf, already stuffed full of books. Her nightstand had a lamp, clock, phone and laptop too, but was also covered in more books. Becky thought she could give sleeping in their room another shot, just to please her. Without another word, she crawled into her bed, turning to look out the window at the view of the city. She heard Stevie sigh behind her (more exasperated than upset, judging by the tone), and curl back up on her bed, where after three more hours of reading, she fell asleep on her book, the lamp still on.

Falling asleep was impossible with that lamp on, so Becky sneaked out to find a couch to sleep on. She decided to crash with Steve and Bucky, to try and honor Stevie’s request. Plus, their couch was the most comfortable anyway, and she fell asleep in no time.

_She woke strapped into the metal chair, the same one they always strap her into before the torture starts. They were never able to break her, not even when they surgically removed the rest of her left arm and replaced it with the metal one, all without anesthesia. They didn't break her when they gave her round after round of various tortures, the next one worse than the one before it, each one etched in her mind like a scar. The experiments were the worst, and for hours afterward she always felt like she had been lit on fire after being hit by a tank. Yet she still hadn't given in. She didn't sleep or eat for days, and only got water every now and then. She knew that the only way she was getting out alive is was if Steve found her, and Steve never gave up without a fight. The Howling Commandos were taking down everything HYDRA, and she knew that sooner or later, they would find wherever she was and get her the hell out of there. She just had to hold on long enough._

_Clearly, Dr. Zola was having none of that. Each day that she held out, he got more and more devious, trying to devise ways to get her to crack. She had suffered under his torture before and she knew that she could do it again. He was stubborn but so was she. She just had to hold out for Steve. As long as he was out there looking for her, she was an impenetrable wall._

_Then Zola pulled his masterpiece trick. She had been tortured nearly nonstop for what felt like days, and she hadn't slept or eaten in longer than that. The experiments had been at their height, and she could feel small pieces of herself slipping away, and that scared her more than anything. Her mantra about Steve had been the only thing pulling her through, the only thing keeping her from collapsing. The goons had strapped her into the metal chair as Zola rolled in a gurney, a sheet covering who or what was laying on it. She wasn't sure if she could trust her eyes, as the hallucinations from starvation had begun. Then she felt her whole world cave and go crashing in as Zola pulled away the sheet, revealing the dead body of Captain America, her Steve. She could tell it was him (how many hours had she spent by his bedside, trying to nurse him back to health and praying that he wouldn't die over the years?), she could remember every detail of his face if her eyes were closed and her hands were behind her back. She screamed, cursed, sobbed and thrashed, feeling herself break from the inside out, her last shred of willingness to live, gone. Zola had won, Steve was dead, and she knew that she was dead even though she was still breathing and her heart was still beating. She had become living death, exactly what Zola wanted. She had become this 'Winter Soldier' that Zola kept calling her. She continued on, watching them roll Steve’s body away, feeling herself shaking, hearing someone far away call her name over and over…_

“Becky! Becky, wake up! Becks, you gotta wake up! Becky!”

Her eyes flashed open, and she realized all of it was a dream. She was safe, on Steve and Bucky’s couch, and Steve was shaking her awake, calling her name. Tears were running down her face, and she could feel that her throat was raw from screaming. Her eyes wandered around, falling on Bucky, who was sitting on the floor next to her, finally coming to rest on Steve, whose hands were still on her shoulders, face filled with worry and concern, and it all clicked into place. She was Jamie Rebecca Barnes, Becky Barnes, and Bucky, Steve, and Stevie Rogers meant the world to her.

“Steve!” Flinging her arms around him, she started sobbing all over again. He wrapped his arms around her, hesitantly.

“Becks, it’s okay, it was just a dream. You’re safe. It was just a dream,” Steve said, trying to calm her down.

“They showed me your body, I thought you were dead. It looked just like you, down to the last detail. It even had on your uniform and shield. I thought you were dead, I thought you were dead,” she sobbed into him, feeling his heart beat underneath her. Steve sucked in a breath as Bucky went white as a sheet and cursed softly.

“She’s remembering,” he said, his voice a husky, raw mixture of emotions. Becky looked up at Bucky, then back at Steve, unsure of how they were going to react to this. She had kept it a secret for a month now, telling no one about her memories of Bucky’s life surfacing. Steve looked at Bucky, then back to Becky, and chose his words carefully.

“How long?” he asked. “How long have the memories…?” Steve trailed off, shaking his head.

“All this past month. They're all from the HYDRA and Winter Soldier days, including everything that went down in Washington during the last days of SHIELD. I think tonight was the last of them from after falling from the train and into HYDRA’s control. I remember falling, the look on your face as I – I mean Bucky – fell farther and farther away from you…”, Becky broke off, unable to continue. Steve’s grip on her tightened. Bucky stood up from the floor and sat on the couch behind her, looking sympathetic but had a haunted look in his eyes.  

“Those are the first memories that came back for me. You're remembering backwards, Becky, same as I did. I remember the Howling Commando days now, and some of Brooklyn, but that’s taken me twice as long and I’m still workin’ on it. Given time, you're going to remember everything too, like Stevie does,” he said, softly leaning against her.

“Like you being sick and scaring the crap outta me,” she whispered into Steve's chest. Steve and Bucky pulled back and looked at her.

“I thought that you said that you didn’t remember Brooklyn,” Steve asked, wariness creeping into his voice.

“It showed up tonight. When I saw you dead, flashes came back to me.”

She looked at Steve, making sure that he understood that she didn't want pity. He gave her a small nod and continued, saying, “The good stuff will come. Then you’ll see just how reckless Bucky was.” Steve smiled at Bucky over her head, who gave him an appalled look, the haunted look in his eyes finally fading.

“Excuse you, who was the one who picked fights with guys twice his size and weight and got beat up in every back alley in Brooklyn? Don’t listen to him, Brooklyn. All those fights screwed up his brain,” Bucky shot back, as a grin spread across Steve’s face. Still holding Becky, Steve sat down on the couch while Bucky glared at him. Becky inadvertently had ended up sandwiched between the two super soldiers, and for once she was okay with them touching her, especially after that nightmare. Being Bucky (or Becky) was hard, but she was Steve’s (or Stevie’s) best friend and practically their left arm, and that gave her a purpose. She was the shield and protector, and she wouldn't let anything happen to them. She was a Barnes, and a Barnes protected their reckless Rogers counterpart.

The three of them stayed up the rest of the night, Steve and Bucky calling her “Becks” and “Brooklyn”, trading snark, sass, insults, and stories, each trying to get her on their side whenever a friendly argument came up. The three of them watched as the sun began to rise over the Hudson and the city, the huge window on their floor giving them nearly an 180˚ view, Steve, who was about to go on his morning run with Sam, stood behind the couch and rested his head on Becky's shoulder while Bucky had curled up on the couch and was using Becky's lap as a pillow as she played with his hair. As she let out a contented sigh, Becky realized that this was the first time she actually felt like she was home.

 

* * *

 

An hour or two later, Steve was already done with his thirteen miles. Sam was still plugging away on his, and Steve liked to run his cool down lap with Sam. Of course he had to go slower to match Sam’s pace, but the two of them used that time to talk music. 

“I’m telling you, Sly and the Family Stone should be next on your list,” Sam insisted as he glanced over at Steve. 

“I know, I know. I promise I will, but I will never hear the end of it if I don’t get caught up with all of the AC/DC records,” Steve replied as he rolled his eyes, “Tony keeps getting on me about it. Speaking of Tony, can you believe that guy? Cloning? It’s like he thinks he’s God. I just –“

“Hey, uh, Steve? Speaking of clones…well, this is kind of poetic to say, but…on your left,” Sam interrupted with a grin of satisfaction.

A fleeting look of confusion crossed Steve’s face, but his confusion evaporated the minute he understood what Sam meant. Catching up to them with an enormous smile on her face was Stevie. Steve did little to hide his annoyance at the interruption, but that didn't seem to deter her. She cheerfully waved at them as she rapidly caught up.

“Hey guys. I’m glad I found you. I got lost, so it looks like I’m catching up to you on the tail end of your run,” Stevie said, her blonde hair ponytail rhythmically pulled up and swishing side to side each time her feet hit the ground.

“Hey, Stevie,” Sam greeted her, “Welcome to the running club. We were just talking music.”

"Sam Wilson, The Falcon, right? I remember you, because..." Stevie gestured at Steve, who was resolutely not looking her direction.

Sam sighed at Steve’s lack of communication. Steve had to try to remember that none of this was her fault. 

Steve knew that he was being rude to Stevie, and it really wasn't her fault that she existed (that he saved for Tony). Still, it felt bizarre to be around her. He wasn't so mad about the memories anymore, but he wasn't necessarily comfortable with the fact that she existed either. He never wanted a clone, but actually getting to know Becky last night had helped him feel less distaste for Stevie. He knew he was acting like a jerk, but he was really trying. There were just too many mixed feelings for him to be around her at the moment. He needed more time to get his thoughts together, but Stevie didn't seem to understand that. 

Just as they were getting to the Park Avenue and 34th intersection, Stevie got a smug little smile on her face.

“Race you to the tower, old man,” she said, attempting to see if poking at Steve would get him to at least recognize her existence.

Steve smirked back at her. She thought she was hot stuff, but she seemed to have forgotten where she came from. She was from his DNA, and he would prove it by showing her how fast he could be. Without another word, he picked up speed. Stevie flashed him a smile and picked up her pace as well, quickly overtaking him.

“That’s cool. I’ll be here, you know, running at a normal human speeds,” Sam called to them, but secretly happy that the two were at least interacting on some level.

Stevie had abandoned the sidewalk. The morning crowd was making it too difficult to run. Instead, she was darting between bikes and even the occasional car to reach Stark Tower first. Steve had caught up enough to catch sight of her and thought she was either incredibly brave or incredibly reckless. The girl was running around moving cars for crying out loud.

He could almost hear Bucky in his head, saying, “ _And who was it that jumped out of airplanes without a parachute?_ ”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” he said under his breath as he continued pumping his arms and legs as fast as they would go. 

He was catching up now. He followed her lead as she dodged a bike rider who yelled obscenities at her. Steve gave the biker an intimidating look that quieted him down. Natasha had let him know how she felt when he scolded Tony about speaking a certain way “in front of a lady”. She thought it was “infantilizing” and said she could hear any language that anyone else could. She emphasized it wasn't what you said _in front of_ a woman, but rather what you said _to_ her that mattered. Steve understood and immediately adapted, hence the dirty look instead of stopping the guy by the bicycle wheel and lecturing him on how to speak in front of woman. 

He was closing in on her as they neared 42nd Street. He was somewhat fascinated as he watched her run. He wondered if he ran the same way, talked with the same inflections, or had the same mannerisms. The two whizzed passed Grand Central Station, but Steve was the first to bust through the lobby doors of the tower, just a millisecond before Stevie.

“You beat me,” she admitted good-naturedly as she wiped her brow with her forearm.

“You’re tough, I gotta give you that, but you didn’t pace yourself,” Steve consented, “We better take the stairs to cool down a bit.”

“Really?” Stevie asked, perhaps a bit too quickly, but checked herself and continue, “Well, I mean, yeah. If you think we should.” 

Steve nodded at the security station as he passed by to get to the stairwell. It was a long way up, but he knew the two of them would easily make it. They were, quite literally, cut from the same cloth. The two were silent for the first few floors, Stevie wanting to let Steve be the first to speak. Steve had no idea what to say to this girl that he barely knew, yet was so incredibly like him. “ _My Clone and_ _I,_ ” he thought, “ _Sounds like some cheesy sitcom Clint would watch_.”

“How did you know where to find me?” Steve asked suddenly curious.

“Tony,” Stevie said with a shrug of her shoulders. 

“Figures,” Steve answered with an edge to his voice.

“I can't say I disagree,” Stevie said with a roll of her eyes.

“Wait, I thought you worshipped the guy,” Steve said, stopping and turning around to face her. 

Stevie looked at Steve blankly until her mouth twitched slightly. Steve thought she was going to cry, but she let out a big laugh as tears sprang to her eyes.

“You have to be kidding. You're joking. Please tell me you're kidding. You didn't tell him you thought that did you? That arrogant idiot is going to get an even bigger head,” Stevie said while catching her breath after she managed to quell her laughter.

“No, of course not! I didn't want to acknowledge he had a cult member before the mighty Tony Stark. As if acknowledging the fact wouldn't stroke his ego more,” Steve said as he chuckled with her, “I am glad to hear you aren’t his groveling disciple.”

“Over my dead body,” Stevie said with a little grin.

The two laughed once more before proceeding up the stairs once more. They didn't talk much, but the silence felt comfortable. When they arrived at the observation floor, Tony was tinkering with his phone. When the pair saw him, they both erupted in laughter, leaving Tony utterly confused when they parted for their respective floors.


	3. A Dame, A Game, and Someone to Blame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A beautiful yet shady lady makes her entrance and Stevie tries to do something nice for Clint, yet it doesn't go as she planned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a quick back to back update! Although we've had a lot of fluff, be prepared, there's dark things in the near future for our dysfunctional superhero family. Come find us on Tumblr! We're sgtbuckycap (sarahlaurengaydos) and miss-paradoxical (ParadoxDefined).

Catalina Sandoval looked at the man on the other side of the desk with bored contempt. She looked at her blood-red nails with a critical eye while addressing him.

“I’m growing tired of this meeting. Are your people interested in this or not?” she said, her rich Spanish accent that made her words glide off her tongue like wine.

“Y-yes ma’am. I understand your eagerness to start your project of sorts,” the man began, “HYDRA is very impressed with your plans. My superiors instructed me to inform you that we’ll back you with one hundred million and manpower. Granted, we have a few stipulations. We want the Winter Soldier back. We would also appreciate access to the Iron Man’s suit collection when you neutralize him. Ah, not to mention those wings that Falcon character has.”

The corner of Catalina’s red lips turned upward in a sarcastic hint of a smile. She was silent for a few moments before she took her legs off of her desk and stood. The man grew even more anxious than he had been before; she had that effect on people. She moved to him with the grace of a swan, but the intentions of a viper. Her hands grasped the arms of the chair he sat in as she leaned in close to him. Her face was mere inches from his, so couldn’t look away if even he tried.

“Keep your money,” she said lowly, “I am an heiress, you know. I just want your manpower. I need to start somewhere and right now I have no soldiers of my own.”

The man gulped and nodded, his fingers tightening around the metal case that housed the money he was supposed to deliver.

“Very good,” she said, giving him a bit more room as she let go of the armrests, “You can have whatever is left in the ruins of their silly little clubhouse. Trust me, Stark's Tower will be in runs. Even more than before the renovations. I believe our business is done.”

“Yes, it would seem so,” the man replied uneasily, “I’ll report back and let them know what you said.”

Catalina did not reply, but she watched the man leave in a hurry. She had a sort of unsettling presence that set people on edge. Her beauty was remarkable, certainly, but not angelic by any means. It was the sort of beauty found in the deadliest of creatures in nature. Her eyes wandered to the wall-sized window that allowed her to look at the New York City Skyline from her top floor office. Avenger Tower was visible from where she observed. They were so close, and it took all her might not to rush things. She had to go about this perfectly or it would never work.

Her hands absently wandered to a chain around her neck, the platinum of which looked beautiful against her tanned skin. She moved the little charm on it back and forth as she considered her next move. The charm was a platinum circle with the constellation Aries engraved on it.

 

* * *

  

"Four months, no threats against Manhattan or mankind in general. It's quiet... _too quiet_ ," Tony thought, as he meandered through the halls, listing in his head the changes the past months had brought.

-Becky and Bucky were gaining more and more memories each week. Becky could remember all of their time with the Howling Commandos now, while Bucky was able to remember back to Pearl Harbor.

-Steve had finally accepted Stevie into his life, letting her go out running with him and Sam every morning (which Sam always complained about but Tony knew that he secretly loved it), and even going out all day on what had come to be called by everyone "The Rogers' sketching field trips", where they would go to parks and museums and just draw all day. They had also started training and sparring together, Steve trying to convince Stevie to take up kickboxing or MMA. 

-Natasha (in what Tony believed was the next step of their not-so-secret relationship) had moved in with Clint on his floor, leaving her floor open for Stevie and Becky to live on. Becky had moved into Natasha's old room, where three of the four walls were glass. Becky couldn't get enough of the view and wanted to give Stevie space to have a wall-sized bookshelf in her room.

-Bruce had taken to giving yoga and meditation sessions on his floor to whoever was having a rough day, usually one of the Rogers or Barnes. Tony swears that he saw Thor up there one day.

-Everyone had taken it upon themselves to bring Steve and Bucky, along with Stevie and Becky, up to speed with modern pop culture, especially in films. Friday nights were now always movie night, each week a different person picking the movie. This week was Tony's turn and he was having trouble on deciding which movie to pick, muttering ideas under his breath as he was wondering the halls, drinking this tea that Bruce swore had more caffeine than coffee.

Just as Tony was passing his workshop, he heard what sounded like a fuse blowing out inside, followed by someone cursing in French. He immediately ran into the room to see Stevie gripping a screwdriver, grinding her teeth while apparently trying to stare down Clint’s coffee machine.

“The fearless Captain America stares down her arch nemesis,” he said sarcastically as he rounded the workbench to see what she was trying to do.

“It’s not cooperating,” Stevie said as she increased the intensity of her glare at the machine.

“Uh- _huh_. And what are you trying to do it? It was working fine yesterday,” Tony said, inspecting the damage to the machine as he spoke.

“I was reading one of the books you gave me. I thought I could apply what I learned in that advanced guide to electricity to improve it,” she said before looking down and practically pouting, “I was going to surprise Clint.”

 “Tell you what. Come with me,” he said after an exaggerated eye roll. He headed to the elevator, and Stevie followed, trying to keep up with his brisk pace. They stood in silence for a moment as the elevator took them to the floor number Tony had punched.

“The corporate offices?” Stevie asked as she furrowed her brow, “What are we here for?”

“Pepper is off to South Korea for a meeting of some sorts. I don’t know. Boring CEO work,” he said with a mischievous look about his eyes, “Don’t tell, but I use the office as a storage space during the extended trips.”

Tony opened the double doors leading to Pepper’s office. Stevie looked at him in disbelief. The room was absolutely packed full of…well, a wide assortment of things. “What will you do with all this when...?” she asked, trailing off, aware of the obvious problem this pile of stuff would cause.

“I’ll deal with it,” he answered noncommittally.

He wove through the narrow alleys between boxes, bookshelves, furniture, and other seemingly random items. She knew they weren't random to Tony. They all had a reason for being there that she just was not privy to. She followed close behind, nearly knocking into him when he suddenly stopped. He picked up a box and held it out to her proudly.

“You make coffee machines now?” Stevie asked, raising an eyebrow when she saw the brand-new, unopened box with a complex looking coffee machine pictured on the side of it. The STARK Industries logo was displayed largely on the front.

“Nah,” he replied, “Just rigged up this beautiful thing specifically for Clint’s birthday. I had a nice box made for it. Makes it seem like it’s a little more…”

“Professional?” Tony made a face.

“I hate that word, but I guess that’s what I mean.”

Stevie wanted to tear into the box to see how the machine worked, but held back and asked, “Are we going to replace his coffee machine since I sort of ruined it?”

“Hopefully. Actually, I should thank you. We've all tried to get him a new coffee machine. You were on a Rogers/Barnes field trip at the time, but Natasha even plugged a new one in and hid the old one to try to make him test it out. Their floor was a mess after that. Arrows and daggers embedded in the walls, furniture with bullet holes, the works.”

Stevie’s eyes widened. “You mean they tried to kill each other?” she asked incredulously.

“No. They just fire off at each other to blow off steam. They are both incredibly accurate, so they always miss on purpose. I guess it’s how they express their love: by not killing each other. Anyway, you and I have a coffee machine to deliver. This won’t go well, just be warned. God knows why he loves that nasty old coffee pot of his. I swear it’s operating on 1980s technology.”

The two returned to the elevator and went to Natasha and Clint’s floor.

“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY COFFEE POT?” was the first thing they heard when they entered the floor. Stevie and Tony gave each other a look before going to the kitchen area.

“It finally bit the dust,” Tony said as he helped himself to a piece of toast Clint had on the table and sat down.

Clint stared slack-jawed at Tony. “But that’s my toast,” was all he managed to say in response.

“Stevie tried to fix it, but it was useless. That thing was way too far gone,” Tony said, covering for Stevie.

Just then Natasha, Becky, and Bucky wandered into the kitchen.

“—so we can eat here, then take off to the simulation room,” Natasha was saying, but stopped when she saw the scene before them. She looked at Clint staring dumbly at Tony, Tony with the piece of toast hanging from his mouth, and Stevie looking very embarrassed for some reason.

“It’s just toast, Clint. We can make more,” she said with an eye roll, guessing that he was just upset that Tony took his breakfast. Honestly, they could be such children at times.

“My coffee pot,” Clint said softly, “…is dead.”

Natasha’s eyes brightened for a brief moment, but then grew serious as she walked up behind and placed a hand on his shoulder. She was elated that the ugly thing was now out of the way. But geez, she hadn't expected Clint to look so sad over the thing. It was different from when she hid it, she supposed, because the coffee pot was still usable, just in an undisclosed location. Now he wouldn't be able to use it again.

Thor wandered in off the elevator to announce to everyone that Jane had just arrived back from her latest research trip. She was right behind him, but he quickly forgot his announcement when he saw the scene in front of him. He knew what was going on just from a quick glance around the room. It was the funeral of Clint’s machine that made that glorious bitter liquid that he so loved.

“Don’t worry. I have the perfect solution,” Tony said as he took a break from his toast and pointed to the box he had set on the counter, “I was prepared for this day. I worked on a new machine for you, Clint. Bells and whistles included.”

“But _my_ coffee pot,” Clint said before looking over at the box, dropping his coffee cup. 

As the cup shattered on the ground, a broad smile crossed Thor’s face. “Get the man another!” he shouted, making everyone in the room jump in surprise.

“Not now,” Jane whispered to Thor, then awkwardly tried to ease the tension in the room, “Good to see you all again.”

Clint was slowly advancing toward the box, open mouthed, but it was difficult to tell if he was shocked, excited, or angry. Thor and Jane quieted to see what he would do. Looking a little relieved, Stevie quietly made her way to stand next to Becky, who had a wary look on her face as she surveyed the scene.

“I don’t know who’s crazier at the moment. Clint or Tony?” she whispered to Becky.

A sarcastic half smile appeared on Becky’s face. “At the moment? Clint. Most of the time? Tony, hands down, no contest.”

Stevie stifled a laugh, but grew serious when Clint began to open the box.

“Well, he’s not throwing it across the room. That’s something,” Bucky said as everyone held their breath.

Slowly, Clint lifted the machine out of the box. It was all shiny and new, but bigger than the old one. He carefully walked the machine over where he previously kept the old coffee machine. He hesitated a moment, closed his eyes, and plugged the machine in. Instantly, the controls lit up.

“Good morning, Mr. Barton. I’m connected to this device wirelessly. What may I serve you?” JARVIS asked, making Clint jump a little in surprise. Becky stiffened when she heard the voice. Although she had been living in the Tower for about five months now, Becky still wasn't used the idea of JARVIS, the entity that talked to them from thin air. And of all things, now he was talking out of a coffee pot? Stevie grabbed her hand and squeezed it while giving her a look that said ‘It’s okay, I'm here with you’. Becky gave her a look of appreciation as they watched Clint look contemplative at the JARVIS coffee machine. 

“Black. Kilimanjaro roast. Extra shot of espresso,” Clint said in a voice that was difficult to read.

“Right away, Mr. Barton. Please place a coffee cup under the coffee streamer,” JARVIS responded.

Tony was grinning like an idiot as Clint obediently got a cup from the cupboard and placed in where JARVIS had indicated. The machine detected the cup and started pouring coffee immediately.

“Your coffee is ready, Mr. Barton,” JARVIS chimed as the stream stopped.

Clint eyed the coffee as he picked it up, sniffed it, and took a cautious sip of the coffee. Everyone was leaning forward without realizing it. Clint pulled back from the cup and stared at it incredulously.

“Well?” Tony asked, unable to contain his impatience to know how well it had worked. He was practically bouncing from anticipation.

“Best damn cup of coffee I think I've ever had, Stark,” Clint said with a crooked grin.

“YES!” Tony exclaimed, leaping up and knocking his chair over in the process.

“Nice job, Tony” and “Great work” and “I can’t believe it” were a few of the phrases exchanged among the group as they collectively sighed in relief.

Jane quietly picked up the chair, unsure what was happening. They all seemed so worked up over a coffee pot. She looked at Thor questioningly.

“I will tell you later, my love,” Thor responded after a hearty laugh. He kissed her on top of the head and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. She wasn't in the Tower as often as he was because of her work, so she missed out on a few of the idiosyncrasies of the group.

Natasha gave Tony a look that expressed just how thankful she was for getting rid of that old piece of junk. Not to mention he made a replacement that Clint would actually accepted.

_Would you expect anything less from me?_ Tony mouthed across the room, thus quickly killing any gratitude she had felt.

Natasha squeezed Clint’s shoulder. He sat down at the table, clearly savoring the freshly brewed coffee.

“Everyone is welcome to have a cup,” he invited, hiding his smile behind his cup.

“Assuredly!” Thor said enthusiastically as he joined the others going to the place their orders with JARVIS.

“Thor, don’t forgot,” Jane reminded him with a small smile.

“Right. No cup breaking, but why did Clinton show his pleasure previously by the same act?” he asked, quite confused by the contradiction in what Jane had told him about proper manners in their culture.

“That’s not…well, never mind that. I don’t think that’s why he did it. Just stick to what we went over,” Jane said, trying her best to not confuse him more.

“He was surprised,” Thor said as it suddenly clicked in his head that Clint was surprised by the gift Tony had given him.

Jane nodded. Thor was no idiot. In fact, he was quite intelligent. It was simply all the cultural differences that baffled him.

“Want a cup?” Stevie asked Becky, “Oh, and where’s Steve? I thought he was training with you guys today.”

“No, he said he had to set up a new ‘gaming system’ that Tony gave him and Bucky,” Becky said, shrugging, clearly unfamiliar with what that meant.

“No way!” Stevie said, suddenly very excited, “I've been wanting to try those. Forget the coffee, let’s go help him!”

“It’s true,” Bucky said, walking into the kitchen to get coffee now that the line had died down. “He gave it to us because Microsoft sent him two new Xbox Ones.”

That was enough for Stevie. She grabbed Becky’s hand and pulled her along.

“But the _coffee_ ,” Becky said in a strained voice as she tried to dig her heels in the ground. Their strength was nearly matched, so every inch Stevie dragged her, Becky pulled back an inch. It was getting them nowhere.

“Hey, whoa there!” Bucky said as he reemerged from the kitchen to follow them. “Easy, I got the coffee for everyone.”

He was trying to juggle four cups, but it was proving fairly difficult. Becky went to his side and took one off of his hands, then another when she realized he got one for Steve too.

“Can we go now?” Stevie asked in a whiney voice.

The three of them glanced over at Natasha, who was trying to talk an overly enthusiastic Clint out of a third cup of coffee. She dismissively waved them off without even looking at the trio. “Yeah,” Becky said, cracking a little smile as they headed towards the elevator. “We can go.”

 


	4. Let The Games Begin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Becky and Stevie learn how to play video games and things take an explosive turn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been a while! College eats up your free time like it's candy. Hopefully more updates will come soon! Come find us on Tumblr! sgtbuckywintercap is sarahlaurengaydos and miss-paradoxical is ParadoxDefined!

Walking into the elevator, Bucky turned to Stevie as he pushed the button for his floor.

“Have you ever played video games?”

“I watched Tony work with a few companies on system designs but I never played one of the games,” she said shrugging, looking at Becky.

“Sounds interesting…?” Becky said, also shrugging, not knowing exactly what to expect.

As they arrived at Steve and Bucky’s shared floor, the sounds of yelling and cheering could be heard through the metal doors.

“Is it safe to go in, JARVIS?” Stevie asked, looking at the doors skeptically as the elevator came to a halt. Becky gave her an annoyed side glance as she took a drink out of one of the cups she was holding, nodding in appreciation at the coffee.

“Yes, they are in-between matches at the current time,” the AI said. “I would mind the scattered pillows and bedding on the floor, however. The remnants of a long since demolished blanket fort.”

Bucky snorted sarcastically, while Becky rolled her eyes and Stevie shook her head. The doors opened to reveal exactly what JARVIS had said, yet he had failed to mention that this fort had taken up a large couch, five chairs, three recliners, two mattresses and all the blankets, pillows, sheets, and cushions that could be found on the entire floor. Becky, Bucky, and Stevie gingerly stepped over and around the various objects, picking their way over to the couch, where Darcy and Steve were focused on playing Super Smash Brothers. Both were wrapped up in a blanket, Darcy in a solid red cable knit one and Steve in a reversible star one.

“Hey-oh!” Darcy called to the newcomers, “I heard from JARVIS that Cappy here was setting up an Xbox One. I helped him set it up, but we ended up playing on the Wii U instead.”

“Wait, what did you call me?” Steve asked with a confused look on his face. Darcy ignored him, keeping her eyes on the screen.

“Anyway, grab a seat within the great Fort DarSteve,” Darcy said, patting the space between her and Steve.

“That’s a terrible name,” Steve said with a snicker, “How about Fort Smash Bros? We are playing Super Smash Brothers after all.”

“Nah, needs more style, Cappy.” Darcy said dismissively, “How about Fort Avenger Bros?”

“Whatever,” Stevie said in exasperation, eyeing the extra controllers sitting in front of the TV with a little too much enthusiasm. “Can we play now? Please?”

Steve was surprised to see Stevie so eager to play. Did she even know how to play?

“All right, here’s a controller for each of you,” Darcy said, relenting and passing out the controllers.

Stevie was practically vibrating in excitement as she took hers. She knew exactly how to hold the controller based on what she had read. Steve had to show Becky how to hold the controller. She held it gingerly, unsure what to do with the thing, giving it a skeptical look.

“You use it to control your character on the screen,” he explained, showing her on his controller. “It’s easier to just learn by doing it.”

Becky nodded as she looked at the TV intently. They all debated over characters and even character colors.

“I kind of like this one. It’s yellow and looks squishy,” Becky said quietly as she selected Pikachu with Steve’s assistance. Stevie looked at her in surprise; she expected Becky to pick a character that looked fierce, not cute. She couldn't resist flinging her arms around her and hugging her tightly.

“You are so cute!” she said with a squeal as she hugged her even tighter. Becky flinched at the sudden hugging and withdrew back a little, making Stevie back off just a little. “Sorry, I’m sorry. It’s just that you are so adorable. You’re all tough, tougher than me actually, and then you pick a squishy yellow thing,” she said, finally letting her go. Becky gave her a half-smile and shrugged, not exactly sure what was so cute about her picking this Pikipu (Pikachu?) character thing.

Stevie picked Zero Suit Samus, intrigued by her feminine identity and athleticism. Steve picked the male Wii Fit Trainer, also impressed with his athleticism although he reminded him of a mannequin. Bucky opted for Fox because it kind of looked like a raccoon, and the idea of a space raccoon somehow intrigued him.

“YAAASSS Charizard!” Darcy screamed as she picked the Pokémon. Everyone stared at her for a moment before she picked random for the stage choice.

“Mario Circuit? Really?” Bucky said with an eye roll as the game selected the stage for them, “I hate this one.”

“That’s just because I beat you at it every time,” Steve replied with a cocky little smirk.

“Oh, shut it, you punk,” Bucky countered while stifling a laugh. Steve sucked at the stage too, even if he refused to admit it.

“It’s starting!” Stevie said, shushing the two bickering guys.

Their respective characters appeared, and the battle was ready to begin. Becky immediately went after Fox with Pikachu since he was closest. Steve was also closing in on Fox, making Bucky fight two at once. Meanwhile, Darcy was going after an item of what purpose Stevie was unsure. Stevie was having her own problems.

“Stevie, you’re jumping off the edge of the platform every time you spawn,” Bucky informed her, looking away for only a moment. It cost him as Becky sent Fox flying into the air. He muttered in Russian as his character came back.

“I heard that,” Becky said, going after Steve this time.

“Hey, I thought we were teaming up, you jerk,” Steve complained as he put up his character’s shield to deflect her attacks. She was wearing him down quickly, however, as the shield grew smaller and smaller.

“Nice touch with the shield, punk,” she said laughing as she knocked the Wii Fit trainer into the air.

Becky began to go toward Samus, but decided to have pity on Stevie, as she was now continually falling off the other end of the platform. Becky looked toward Charizard as he took hold of what looked like a massive hammer. 8-bit music began to play as Charizard flung the thing around. She tried to take her head-on, unaware of what the hammer did. Her character was soon flung into the air by the rampaging flying lizard. The item disappeared, leaving Charizard standing with the respawned Wii Fit trainer, Fox, and Samus, who was headed for edge yet again.

“Taste fire, ya dopes!” Darcy yelled as Charizard leaned forward and unleashed a torrent of fire on all of them. She entered the Final Smash form and knocked all three of them off of the platform. Darcy cackled wildly until the 8-bit music started again.

“Well shi—” was all she got out before Becky pounced on her with the hammer in Pikachu’s clutches.

“YES!” Stevie, Bucky, and Steve all yelled at once.

“Down with the evil queen!” Becky said, making everyone but Darcy laugh.

“Just wait for round two. I’ll be the fairest of them all then!” Darcy said.

JARVIS interrupted them before that could happen. “Miss Rogers and Miss Barnes, you have mail awaiting you in the common room,” he said in his polite way as Becky flinched slightly at the sound of his voice.

Stevie looked at Becky questioningly, but Becky only shrugged. They didn't know anyone outside the Avengers Tower. Why would anyone send them mail?

“Hey, people are starting to notice two new faces hanging out with us in public. Maybe the media wants an interview or something. Especially with someone acting reckless and running between cars on our morning run,” Steve said, looking over at Stevie with a teasing look in his eyes. Stevie blushed slightly and refused to look at him.

“You what?” Becky asked, looking at Stevie with a sour face as Stevie pulled her off of the couch.

“Nothing. He’s just mouthing off because he’s mad I won our race this morning. Now let’s go see what it is!” she said, hurriedly shoving Becky towards the elevator so she couldn't ask more questions.

“We’ll play a round while you guys go check it out,” Darcy said, choosing the next stage.

Stevie nodded as she linked her arm with Becky’s and left the room. The got into the elevator together and went up to the common area.

“Reckless, huh?” Becky asked, raising an eyebrow at Stevie.

“He’s just mad he lost!” Stevie repeated, still avoiding the question.

“Mmm-hmm,” Becky said, absently watching the floors tick by.

The elevator arrived in the common room, and they were surprised to see it quite full. Nick, Thor, Jane, Maria, Tony, Bruce, Natasha, and Clint all sat around the living area, talking about how to introduce the public to Stevie and Becky.

“We cannot, under any circumstances, tell the public they are _clones_ ” Nick stated emphatically.

“Why? It’s incredible. Bruce and I should get some credit here,” Tony said.

“Tony, could you at least pretend that your ego is not the size of the solar system?” Natasha asked, “Cloning is _illegal_. Who knows what would happen to them if we let it out that they are clones of Captain America and The Winter Soldier?”

Becky was interested in their conversation, so she walked over to stand near them to listen to more of it. Stevie, however, was fixated on the smallish brown box that sat on the bar. She made a beeline for it and picked it up. It was addressed to both her and Becky, with no return address. She would wait until Becky came over to see it too, but she could at least shake it to guess what was inside. Stevie shook the box without thinking that there could be breakable items inside. After the harsh jostling, she still couldn't tell what was inside. Maybe just a peek, she thought as she pulled off the tape. She lifted the lid only a fraction of an inch before she heard a whirring noise coming from inside the box.

Becky swung around from where she was standing, alerted by the whirring noise. Tony too was alarmed by it and jumped up at the sound, but Becky was faster. She knew that sound, knew it very well. She had memories of killing associated with that sound. Tony was shouting at Becky to stay away, but she paid no attention to him. If she didn't get to Stevie first, then it was over. She didn't think twice as she snatched the package from the dumbstruck blonde’s hands and hurtled herself toward the glass wall. Normally it would take the force of a car to break through glass that thick, but Becky was far stronger than the average person and broke through it.

For an instant, she saw Stevie screaming at her from inside the tower, but she couldn't make out what she was saying. She only smiled sadly at her in the fraction of a second it took to start falling. Stevie was uselessly reaching out of the Tower toward Becky, but Becky was already too far. Tony was struggling to keep her from falling out; she was significantly stronger than him when he wasn't in an Iron Man suit. Only when Thor helped him was he able to yank her away from the window.

The package had remained intact from crashing through the window and Becky didn't know how long she had until they hit the ground before it would explode. If it was after she hit the ground, it could hurt someone innocent. Pulling what she and Bucky called a “Rogers”, she curled into a ball and clutched the package to her, which would hopefully muffle the explosion some and help save any bystanders. 

As Becky watched Stevie kick and scream while Tony and Thor tried to pull her away, getting smaller and smaller, she thought about the train. “Oh God, the train,” she thought with dread, “Now _I’m_ living it.” Reality and her borrowed memories blurred as both Stevie and Steve’s faces flashed before her one last time before Thor and Tony pulled Stevie away for good. Tears sprang to Becky's eyes as she tried to come to terms with the fact that she would probably die very, very soon. She wasn't crying for herself. No, she cried for Steve who would have to relive losing Bucky all over again. She cried for Bucky who would have to remember every painful second of his fall when he learned about hers. She cried most of all for Stevie, who would have to face the endless grief of losing her dearest friend. She knew that horrible ache from her memories of seeing Steve dead. She braced for impact as she neared the ground, clutching the package and squeezing her eyes shut.

The ground never came. She found herself stuck to some bizarre sticky net of sorts. The collision with the net flung the package from her hands, but not soon or far enough. A blast that made her instantly deaf sounded in her brain as she felt the fire and heat from the bomb only a second before darkness swallowed her.


	5. Oh What A Tangled Web We Weave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, we hang out in the hospital and make a new friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in updates!  
> Just a quick note: there are a few things in MCU canon from Age of Ultron that we're choosing to ignore by covering our ears and singing loudly.  
> In honor of Steve/Stevie's birthday, here's a new chapter!  
> Tumblr: sgtbuckywintercap and miss-paradoxical

Every instinct Stevie felt screamed at her to jump after Becky, regardless of the fact that they were at the top level of Stark Tower. She tried, oh God, how she tried. She screamed almost inhumanly in despair as Tony attempted to hold her back. His fingers dug into her the flesh of her arm, trying with all his might to stop the incredibly strong woman. Instinctually, she elbowed him in the chest, sending him flying backward.

She was free to jump after Becky. _Not this time. Not ever again_ , she thought as she prepared to dive out the smashed window, the wind from the altitude whipping her long blonde hair about wildly. Just as she was about to make the jump, an arm much stronger than Tony’s held her arm fast.

“Stop,” Thor said gently, but Stevie didn’t hear him. Tony joined him, holding her other arm, and finally tore her away from the window. Before they did, she saw Becky falling, and she swore she saw her tearing up. That made her fight the two men more furiously, but she couldn’t match both of them. Tony let go and Thor wrapped both of his arms around her torso, pinning her arms to her sides.

“Damn you, let me go!” she yelled, “I can…I can still…”

“You can still what? Kill yourself too? Stop it, Stevie,” Tony said gravely, his eyes blank and unreadable. His phone was in his hand and he was dialing a number without ever taking his eyes off of Stevie.

“What happened? JARVIS alerted us of a security breach,” Steve said, walking in with his shield ready to go. Bucky was also decked out in his gear, and Darcy, still wrapped in the red blanket, followed them, though they had told her to stay behind.

“Becky…” Thor started, temporarily distracting him from Stevie. She broke from his weakened grip, but didn’t go to the window again. Too many second had passed, so she ran to the stairwell, unwilling to wait for the elevator. Her agile body allowed her to tear down the stairs at an inhuman speed, sometimes jumping over entire flights of stairs. She could hear the sounds of someone following her, but she didn't care. Her vision blurred, and she rubbed her eyes. They were wet, but she hadn’t noticed. She was too focused to think about how she felt. All that mattered was Becky. Becky, her soulmate, her sister, her friend.

A muffled explosion sounded as Stevie’s pace slowed and a sob escaped her. It had been too long. She was too late. There was no way she would be able to save her. She leaned against the wall and sank to the ground, which felt like it was a million miles away. _I failed her_ , she thought numbly, _I failed her when she needed me_. Tears were pouring, but her countenance was stone. She felt arms encircle her as Steve caught up to her. Her façade crumbled, and she clutched at Steve’s shirt, thoroughly soaking it.

 “I couldn’t…My fault…” she said, unable to string together a coherent sentence.

Steve didn’t say anything. He couldn’t. He would fall apart too. Telling her it would be all right would be a lie if she were anything like him, and he knew deep down that she was too much like him. Her whole world was going dim, he could already tell, as her sunny blue eyes were now a cold, steely blue, rimmed with angry red. He knew that she would destroy whoever did this, any everyone associated with them. She was innocent and sweet before, but now a hardness would mark her, and it wouldn’t ever leave.

Steve looked up when he heard furious running coming down the stairs.

“She’s alive. Mt. Sinai Hospital. Sam’s got her on Stark’s private floor with some kid named Parker,” Bucky said, as he tore down the stairs past them, almost faster than Stevie had been running moments before.

Breaking from Steve’s arms, Stevie shot down the stairs with Steve following right behind her.  After a number of flights, she bypassed Bucky almost as if he had been standing still. Stevie knew where Mt. Sinai Hospital was, having passed it every now and then on morning runs. Reaching the ground floor, she took off out the doors, blocking everyone and everything out but her mission: to find Becky and make sure that she was alive.

As soon as she hit the hospital doors, Stevie set off through the hallways, shoving past people, calling back apologies. Finding the stairwell (no time to wait for the elevator), she took the stairs two or three at a time, practically flying up them. Once she had gotten to Tony’s private floor in the hospital, all she had to do was look for the room. The room was apparently being guarded by Sam and a skinny nerdy looking guy in glasses and a hoodie.

“Where is she? How is she? How bad? When was the last time you talked to someone? Has the doctor been by recently? Has she woken up? Who is this? Why is he here?” she asked in one breath, looking between the two men. The nerdy guy, slightly taken aback, raised an eyebrow and looked at Sam, wondering if he was used to this kind of thing.

“She’s still in surgery. The doc should be back in a few minutes with an update, we just stepped out when we heard you were running down people in hallways. This is Peter Parker. He helped save Becky,” Sam answered, all too used to answering one breath interrogations from bossy blondes. Stevie immediately grabbed Peter in a tight hug.

“Peter, this is Stevie Rogers, she’s the female clone of Steve Rogers, you know, Captain America. Becky’s the-“

“Female clone of Bucky Barnes, The Winter Soldier. Yeah, Sam, I figured. She did dive off the top of the Avengers Tower. Hey, can I breathe again?” Peter choked out. Stevie let go with a small apology as Steve and Bucky caught up to them; Steve’s shield was hooked onto the back of his suit for better ease when running.

“Sam, Peter. What’s the situation?” Steve asked, putting his arm around Stevie as she moved in between him and Bucky. She was looking at Sam then Peter, who was a little in awe to see the two of them suited up. Peter was new to the team, and today’s schedule was supposed to include one of his first Avenger meetings. Sam nudged him in the arm to bring him back into focus.

“In all honesty? She’s lucky not to be dead. When I caught her, I also caught the bomb right before it exploded. I still have the pieces of it, if that helps. If I had been there earlier – “Peter trailed off.

“Don’t. You saved her life. That’s what matters,” Steve reassured him.

“Wait, what do you mean, ‘caught’?” Stevie asked. Peter rolled up his sleeve to show her a contraption attached to his wrist. Stevie looked at it curiously, and then up at Peter with a speculative look.

“You’re Spiderman, aren’t you?” she asked and Peter nodded. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it almost as quickly. She had a lot of questions for this guy but not right now. Becky was the priority. “Tell me what happened.”  
  
“I was heading over to the Tower with Sam for a meeting that Fury called when it happened. Sam didn’t have his wings, so he was grounded, but I had my shooters. I wish I could have done more. The explosion, your friend…I’m sorry,” Peter said. Sam put his hand on Peter’s shoulder. Sam and Peter exchanged wary looks. Peter nodded at Sam, who sighed and looked at the trio in front of him, visibly pale and worried.  
  
“You need to know something before she comes back, something that happened in the explosion. Becky’s injuries are extensive, covering most of her body in one way or another, her right arm getting the most damage. She-“  
  
“Lost her right arm, along with extensive damage to the muscles and bones along the torso,” the doctor stated, as he walked up to the group. Shaking their hands, he introduced himself as Dr. Rockbell, Tony’s personal doctor and surgeon. Stevie recognized his name from Tony’s documents about his arc reactor and shrapnel removal surgery. “Much of this is being replaced with synthetic and cybernetic counterparts, the bones being replace with metal equivalents, using adamantium and vibranium. We will also need investigate to see if we need to make enhancements to her joints to help balance out the extra weight of her new robotic prosthetic arm. Mr. Stark had created its blueprint as a backup for Mr. Barnes, and planning for its construction to be out of vibranium and adamantium in hopes that it would be indestructible. This prosthetic will span from her shoulder area, across the armpit, and downwards, just like Mr. Barnes’ arm. This prosthetic will also have cybernetic components to connect with existing nerves, so that it may react and become her actual arm, also just like Mr. Barnes’. Miss Barnes has also received many other cuts across her body from shrapnel pieces hitting her. The shrapnel has been removed and the cuts have already begun healing, although they will be leaving scars that will hopefully fade over time. We also have had to repair damage to the interior of her right ear caused by the explosion.”  
  
Turning towards Bucky, Dr. Rockbell held out his left hand to shake hands, forcing Bucky to do the same. Still holding Bucky’s metal hand, the doctor perused it and the arm it was attached to with an experienced eye for prosthetics, saying, “Mr. Barnes, Mr. Stark’s studies of your prosthetic and surgical reconstruction have been invaluable to us. What he learned about you is helping us save her and create her prosthetic as well, and we would like for you to let us run some extra scans on you so that we can repair her body properly.” Paling a bit more, Bucky nodded.  
  
“Okay, fine. How much longer until she will be out of surgery, Doc?” Bucky asked in a low voice. Dr. Rockbell looked sympathetically at him in a way that showed his years of dealing with Emergency Room traumas and talking with patients’ families. His tone of voice softened.  
  
“Many hours, and she will be under heavy sedation until we are sure that all the damage from the explosion has been taken care of. If you will excuse me, I must get back to the Operating Room. Mr. Barnes, if you please?” he said, gesturing down the hallway. Bucky nodded, and, glancing at Steve and Stevie, followed the doctor down the hall, leaving the four with shell-shocked looks on their faces.  
  
“Oh Becky...” Stevie sighed, leaning against the wall. Not having the will to stand up anymore, she slid down the wall until she was on the floor. Steve sat cross-legged next to her, moving her head to rest on his shoulder. Looking up, he and Sam shared a look.  
  
“Call the others, tell them what’s going on. Make sure that Tony gets his ass down here now,” Steve said, his voice in full Captain Mode. Sam nodded and walked down the hall, pulling his phone out of his pocket as he went. Steve turned to look at Peter, whose eyes were betraying the fact that all of this was déjà vu of something that was way too fresh in his memories. Steve remembered Fury saying something about Peter’s girlfriend dying from falling off of a building not long ago. Noticing that Steve was watching him, he began to clean his glasses nervously, just to have something to do. Steve softened his tone, yet still held an edge of authority to it when he spoke again.  
  
“Hey, Peter? It’s going to be a long time before Becky gets out and an even longer time before one of us goes anywhere. Would you be okay with grabbing coffee for the five of us? I know that we’re all not going to sleep anytime soon and there is a lot to be done. Plus, you look like you could use a cup. Another all-nighter?”  
  
“Yeah. New semester, demanding jobs, you know. Life isn’t for the weak,” Peter said, putting his glasses back on and trying his best to stay upbeat.  
  
“Isn’t that the truth,” Steve agreed, nodding his head solemnly. Peter nodded his head in agreement.  
  
“Coffee, right? Ginormous with about a gazillion shots of espresso in each?” Peter asked, starting to walk backwards down the hall, half smile on his face.  
  
“Sounds about right to me. Thanks, Peter,” Steve said, watching him turn and walk down the hall past Sam, clapping him on the shoulder as he went by. Feeling his shirt starting to stick to him, he turned to see that Stevie had started crying again. Moving her so that she was using his leg for a pillow instead of his shoulder, he began to absently stroke her hair as he watched Sam talk on the phone.  
  
Since there were no clocks on the walls, the only way to mark the passing of time was by small events:

  *       Peter, coming back with coffees the size of a small country.
  *       Bucky, coming back from the scans and downing his coffee in one sitting, which slightly terrified Peter, yet he also found it admirable.
  *       The rest of the team showing up with more ginormous coffees, along with stuffed overnight bags and blankets. Tony made a beeline it to the Operating Room, barely acknowledging them as he went past.
  *       Steve and Bucky finally getting to change out of their uniforms. They could only stay in leather and combat gear for so long. Combat boots could be comfy though.  

  * Natasha and Clint, dragging Stevie and Bucky with them, disappearing for a long time, only to return with arms full of sunflowers (Becky’s favorite according to Stevie), male and female Captain America bears, and male and female Bucky Bears. Stevie wouldn’t let the female bears out of her grip.
  *       Tony coming back from the OR, grabbing Bucky, and dragging him back with him. “I need this man’s arm,” was all Tony said.
  *       After the team took over Becky's empty hospital room, Natasha and Clint falling asleep on top of each other in one of the tiny chairs.  
Peter leaving and coming back from class, work, and his Aunt May’s with a stuffed overnight bag of his own. “I’m in it for the long haul,” he said, dropping his bag next to still sleeping Clint and Natasha’s chair.
  *       Sam, Bruce, Thor, and Jane playing the biggest game of Monopoly Steve had ever seen. Thor got very into it after the rules were explained to him, beating everyone the first round.  

  * Steve regularly losing feeling in his leg and having to shift Stevie around to regain feeling.
  *       Tony coming back from the OR with an unreadable look on his face and a container in his hands. “The damage,” he said, shaking his head and sinking into a chair next to Peter, who had joined the Monopoly game when he had come back the last time.
  *       Clint’s watch vibrating at various hours, which he would announce to the group.
  *       Stevie falling into fitful bits of sleep off and on.
  *       Sam getting phone calls from Nick and Maria.
  *       Steve and Stevie going and giving blood for transfusions for Becky in a set up right outside the OR doors, Bucky, who had taken up residence in a chair himself hours before, was at the end of their trio of chairs with a needle in his right arm and silently flipping his knife in his left, giving looks to hospital staff as they walked by.
  *       The doctor coming out at regular intervals to update them on Becky’s condition and the progression of surgery.



When the faint light of dawn was starting to color the horizon, the doctor came back in different scrubs. All of them stopped what they were doing and stood up, nudging those who were asleep awake.  
  
“She’s out of surgery. Everything went as well as expected. Mr. and Miss Rogers and Mr. Barnes are with her, lightheaded from blood transfusions but refusing to leave her side. As soon as she passes the post-op, they will be moving her into the room,” the doctor said, causing everyone in the room to sigh in relief. As soon as the doctor had gone back to oversee Becky’s removal to her room, they all congregated in the hallway outside of her room, sitting cross-legged against the walls on either side.  
  
“So are we going to talk about what’s in the box, Stark?” Clint asked, nodding to the container that Tony still hadn’t let go of. Tony looked down at his hands and sighed heavily.  
  
“It’s the remnants of the bomb. Inside are the pieces that got caught up in Peter’s web and what they took out of Becky. I know every bit of it, because it’s Stark tech. Back when Stark Industries was still in the weapons business, we made all sorts of sizes of bombs and sold them to all sorts of people. I wouldn’t be surprised if HYDRA even has Stark weapons still tucked away somewhere. But this one, this one is different. This is the one bomb that my dad and I created together, right before he died. We called it the Whirling Dervish because of the way it emits a loud whirring noise thirty seconds before detonation. It has a blast radius of sixteen feet, same as a grenade, and can do just about as much damage. I had no idea that my dad manufactured our design. It doesn’t do much in the broad scheme of explosives, but it does enough to get a point across.”  
  
“Becky knew it. When it started making noise, her head shot up immediately at the sound. If she knew it, Bucky would probably recognize it too,” Bruce said, cleaning his glasses on the hem of his shirt. Jane shook her head and pulled a cleaning cloth out of her pocket and handed it to him.  
  
“Is it small? Enough to fit into a pocket?” Natasha asked, curling her knees to her chest as Clint rested his arm on her shoulder, fiddling with one of his purple hearing aids. Peter leaned in, absorbed in the conversation.  
  
“Yes, we made it so that soldiers could easily carry them out into the battlefield or combat and use them like long exposure grenades,” Tony answered, talking more to the box in his hands than anyone else. Thor put his arm around his shoulders and gave him a hug, patting his back consolingly.  
  
“They know it, HYDRA had it, and so did the Red Room. I had heard of it, never seen it in action. Tony, it’s not your fault. Your company may have created the bomb, but you didn’t mail it to yourself to blow up those you care about,” Natasha said as Clint put his hearing aid back in and took the other one out and started fiddling with it.  
  
“This is the work of someone or something else, people who wanted to hurt us, specifically hurt you, Tony. Why else send this specific Stark Industries bomb to the Avengers Tower addressed to two people that we haven’t even officially introduced to the public?” Sam said, Clint nodding his head in agreement.  
  
“More importantly, how did it pass mail inspection and how did they get Becky and Stevie’s names?” Clint asked, putting his other hearing aid back in.  
  
A loud noise from the end of the hallway made them stand up and look around. A group of nurses and Dr. Rockbell were rolling a large bed down the hallway, followed closely by Steve and Bucky, and by Stevie who was still hugging the bears in a death grip. The three of them looked slightly pale and grim as they made it to the room. Tony went to stand by Stevie as the others tried to get a look at Becky as they rolled her into the room, but the staff blocked their way and closed the door to properly situate the tubes and the bed, leaving all of them waiting in the hallway. After a few minutes of not-so-patient waiting, the nurses and the doctor came back out. After promising that they wouldn’t swarm Becky, the group was allowed into the room, the doctor closing the door behind them.  
  
They all stood around the bed, speechless, looking down at the eerily still mess of bruises, bandages, and shiny metal that was Becky. Stevie, looking like she was in physical pain, was the first to move as she walked over to Becky’s right side, where a shiny metal arm now lay instead of her lost human one. She carefully climbed onto the bed, curling up along the edge of the bed, as close as she dared get to Becky, not taking her eyes off of her, and set the two bears behind her head as a makeshift pillow. Steve and Bucky sat down in the large recliner on the opposite side of the bed, cramming their super soldier selves to fit next to each other, Steve finally getting up to sit on the bed while Bucky folded himself into the chair, his eyes never leaving Becky’s face. Tony took a chair and sat next to Stevie, setting the container onto the floor next to him and resting his head on a small area of the bed near the top of Stevie’s head. Natasha and Clint returned to the chair that they had been previously sleeping in while Sam and Peter had scrounged up a couch and three recliners from some of the other rooms for them, Bruce, Thor, and Jane. Thor and Jane took the couch while Sam and Peter curled up in two of the recliners. Bruce offered Natasha and Clint the third recliner, wanting a more uncomfortable chair so he woud be able to stay awake to look at Becky’s file, which he had talked the doctor into giving him and to keep an eye on Tony, who looked about as emotionally stable as a square three-legged table. When the doctor and nurse came in at the hour to check on them and take Becky’s vitals, they found everyone asleep but Bruce, who was pouring over Bucky’s medical file and surgery notes.  
  
Three long days passed before Becky woke up.  
  
On the first day, Nick and Maria had herded any of the Avengers that they could convince to leave Becky’s side (they had to drag Tony away by force) to a (literal) damage control PR conference. Since they hadn’t decided how to properly announce Stevie and Becky’s existence to the world yet, they had to state that an “undisclosed Avenger” had thwarted a bombing at the Tower and was recovering peacefully at an undisclosed hospital in New York. The rest of the day was spent crammed inside Becky’s room, leaving when the nurses kicked them out (or in Peter’s case, his job) and sleeping in shifts. Stevie wouldn’t sleep unless she knew that either Steve, Bucky, Nat, Bruce, or Tony were awake and watching Becky’s every breath. Sam and Clint made regular runs for coffee and non-hospital food, saying that it wasn’t even fit for the birds. Bruce and Tony did research, talking nonstop back and forth, until they were exiled out into the hall by majority vote. Nick and Maria brought Chinese take-out for dinner that night, giving them an update on the results of the press conference from the morning and the lack of luck they were having on finding out who sent the bomb to the Tower while they ate.  
  
“Apparently, only announced Avengers, famous scientists, or CEOs’ mail was set up to be screened through JARVIS on arrival, not anyone else’s mail,” Maria said, nonchalantly eating her sweet and sour chicken. Tony choked on his mouthful of bok choy and furiously began typing away on his cell phone.  
  
“This of course has been changed to anyone who lives in the Tower, is an Avenger, or is a close associate of an Avenger,” Nick stated, giving the stare down to everyone, particularly Tony, who nodded fervently in agreement as he tucked his phone back into his pocket.  
  
On the second day, Tony and Bruce had a conference with Dr. Rockbell about Becky for hours, running through the test results and speculating over research data. Tony dragged an unhappy Bucky into the conference at one point to compare and contrast his modifications to what they did or didn’t do to Becky. When they emerged and returned to Becky’s room, the two scientists were besieged by the others, demanding to know what they talked about in detail. The doctor, hurried off, muttering about checking in with the nurses, while Bucky silently went to go sit next to Steve by Becky’s bed, glaring at anyone who asked him a question, leaving Tony and Bruce to answer the flood of questions. Much of the information had been given by the doctor earlier to Steve, Sam, Bucky, Peter, and Stevie, so the five of them tuned them out, sitting in a circle around Becky’s bed, focusing on the Mario Kart game that Darcy had brought over that morning with coffee. Hearing all the noise, the nurse kicked all but the five out of the room and into the hallway, where they continued to pester Tony and Bruce with questions. Darcy came by again later with diner food for dinner and stayed all night playing videogames with anyone who was awake. Peter had struck up a science-y friendship with Bruce, and spent most of the night talking with him about all things biology. Tony, initially slightly wounded at this new friendship, quickly warmed up to Peter and joined in on their conversation.  
  
On the third day, Becky’s bruises had faded away and all her bandages had been removed, leaving a mess of fading scars in their wake, the most noticeable one being where her metal arm met the rest of her body, which wasn’t fading away, just becoming less red. Earlier that day, the doctor, praising her rapid healing from not only the super soldier serum that she already had flowing through her veins but the transfusions that she received, had taken Becky off of sedation and had lowered her pain medication, stating that according to the latest rounds of tests and imaging she was completely healed. All was left to do now was to wait for her to wake up, then run some final tests to make sure that everything was fully functional before discharging her from the hospital into the Avengers’ care. Bruce and Tony, who had been allowed back into the room by the nurse (whom Tony had taken to calling Nurse Ratchet when out of earshot) on promise that they wouldn’t cause noise, agreed that if Becky hadn’t had the super soldier serum running through her veins, she would have died from the explosion. Stevie, who was at the end of her rope with the pair, glared over her battered copy of “The Updated Biography of Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes” at them from her spot on Becky’s bed. Steve, who had blocked them out, sat on the other side of the bed, reading over Stevie’s shoulder and absently playing with Becky’s hair. Bucky, sitting on the end of the bed, was playing Gin Rummy with Natasha and Clint, absently twirling his knife in his metal hand and glancing every few seconds at Becky. Thor, Jane, and Darcy had gone back to the Tower, dragging Sam with them, along with everyone’s overnight bags. Peter had gone to work, but not before making Bruce and Tony promise that they would text him as soon as Becky woke up.  
  
Twitching of the fingers on Becky’s left hand caused Bucky, Natasha, and Clint to drop their cards. Bucky nudged Steve’s foot and gestured at Becky. Steve looked up from the book and looked down at Becky’s face, and noticing the small changes in expression, his hand froze in her hair. Stevie, catching the exchange in her peripheral, stopped reading and focused solely on Becky’s face as well. Her book and the bears slipped off her lap, landing on Tony’s head, since he had been sitting on the floor next to Becky’s bed doing something on his phone. Standing up and opening his mouth to retort, he saw what was going on and closed it. Instead, he smacked Bruce on the arm, waking him up since he had fallen asleep on top of his laptop. Sitting up, he saw everyone staring at Becky, who had just made a grimace, and made a beeline out the door, his phone already in his had to call the others. Coughing, she opened her eyes, her gaze roaming around until it landed on Stevie.  
  
“Stevie,” Becky sighed, her face full of relief, causing Stevie to choke back a sob.  
  
“I thought you were dead,” Stevie whispered back. Becky gave her a half smile, a memory playing in her eyes.  
  
“I thought you were smaller,” Becky croaked.

Stevie gave her a sad relieved laugh, gingerly wrapping her arms around Becky’s neck and resting her head on top of Becky’s. Becky patted her hands with her left arm, a sad smile crossing her face while Steve ran his fingers through Stevie’s hair.  
  
“Did it hurt?” Stevie asked, her voice small and a bit muffled by Becky’s thick hair. Over the past months, her hair had grown out a bit, getting decidedly wavier and thicker, although she was still making sure that it was never long enough to be properly grabbed. Stevie loved how Becky always had the best bedhead in the mornings, only rivaled by Bucky’s, whose hair was also starting to get longer and messier. Steve agreed with her that they must have made a secret pact about their hair lengths.  
  
“A little,” Becky said, frowning slightly at returning painful memories. It also didn’t help that Stevie was now practically laying on her head.  As she started to shift her body to accommodate Stevie, she stopped suddenly and looked down noticing her metal arm for the first time. Her frown deepening, she looked up at Steve, then Bucky, looking for their confirmation to her thoughts.  
  
“Is it permanent?”  
  
“So far,” Bucky answered her quietly, walking over to her right side and taking her metal hand in his, painful memories now also running through his mind. She nodded, looking away from his face, a few silent tears rolling down her cheeks. Bruce, walking in from calling everyone to tell them that Becky was awake, sidestepped to avoid colliding with Clint as he was heading out to go get the doctor.  
  
“Are you in pain? Do we need to up your meds?” Tony asked, trying to look and see what IV was what. Bruce quietly walked over to him and gently took his hands off the IV bags. Becky shook her head, looking down at her human arm, covered in fading scars that were starting to look sort of like freckles, and her shiny metal one. Clint slid back into the room, walking over to stand next to Steve. Natasha, who had stood up when Becky woke up, walked over and put her hands on Bucky’s shoulders.  
  
“No. I’m okay. I’m… I’m relieved actually. All of you are alive, the Whirling Dervish didn’t kill anyone, and if that means that I had to sacrifice…well, my arm, to keep it that way, then so be it. I just...”  
  
“I know, Brooklyn, I know,” Bucky said, leaning over and kissing her on the forehead. Tony muttered something about ‘self-sacrificing nonagenarians and their equally self-sacrificing clones’ to Bruce, causing Natasha to smack him hard upside the head and Bruce to shake his head in all-suffering resignation.  
  
“It’s weird, you know? I feel…sturdier, more solid, almost like I’m fully balanced out. Just… I don’t know, different I guess, a good different though,” Becky said, carefully moving and testing her limbs, careful not to disturb Stevie or let go of Bucky’s hand, looking at Bucky, who shrugged and nodded. Steve and Stevie shared a look over Becky’s head.  
  
“That would be the effect your new arm is having on the rest of your body. Miss, Barnes, your anatomy is based off of Mr. Barnes, yet yours was based off of him after the super soldier serum and enhancements were added to make him The Winter Soldier. These enhancements assumed that you were naturally made with a metal arm. Hopefully, this will now make it easier for you,” the doctor said, walking into the room, clipboard in hand, followed by a nurse who gave Tony a dirty look.  “I’m Doctor Rockbell, the head doctor overseeing your care and also Mr. Stark’s personal doctor and surgeon. You are on Mr. Stark’s private floor here at Mt. Sinai Hospital. If you wouldn’t mind, I would like to run some final diagnostics before we can safely clear you into your team’s care.” Becky nodded, and the nurse kicked everyone out until the first round of tests were finished.  
  
“How long are these kinds of tests supposed to take,” Stevie practically whined, nearly bouncing to get back in the room.  
  
“As long as necessary,” Tony replied, his hands on both of her shoulders to try and get her to stop bouncing.  
  
“She could be asking a million questions,” Bruce said, leaning against the wall and rubbing the bridge of his nose.  
  
“I would be. I’d want to know everything,” Clint stated, twirling a pen around in his fingers.  
  
“Knowing everything is not always a good thing,” Natasha replied, snatching the pen away from him.  
  
“Where’d our Brooklyn boys get to?” Tony asked, looking around, the elevator doors opening as he finished his question.  
  
“Sorry, we had to go get some clothes and such for Becks, well, since…,” Steve said, carrying a large paper bag, trailing off as he and Bucky walked up to the group.  
  
“Since most of us never left, and no one brought Brooklyn clothes to go home in, which is just rude,” Bucky finished, as the door opened up and they were allowed back in the room. Becky was sitting on the side of the bed, in her hospital gown, looking down at her legs and feet.  
  
“Did you know that I have these scars on my legs too? Not just my arms, well arm I guess, but my legs. I’m now covered in a bunch of these freckle-looking scars from that bomb...geez,” Becky sighed, looking up at the group. Her eyes narrowed in on the bag in Steve’s hands. “What’s in the bag?”  
  
“Clean clothes, toiletries, the essentials. Go wash up before they drag you off again, T-X,” Tony said, snatching the bag out of Steve’s hands and tossing it to Becky, who caught it deftly with her metal arm. “Nice to see the arm’s up to snuff. Don’t worry, it’s Stark Industries lifetime guaranteed element-proof.”  
  
“Good to hear, RoboCop, I’ll keep that in mind,” Becky said, slowly getting up and walking carefully across the room to the bathroom, carrying herself more comfortably than she had before the bombing.  “Thanks for the clothes, Steve. You too, Bucks,” she said, kissing Steve and Bucky both on the forehead. She good-naturedly nudged Tony in the arm with her metal one as she went by, closing the door behind her.  
  
“First thing we do once we get back to the Tower…” Tony muttered, rubbing his arm, Becky apparently having forgotten her own strength in trying to make Tony feel a little better.  
  
“Yeah, yeah, teach her how to use her new arm and everything. I’ve done this before, Stark. Plus, I’m the only one that can work freely with her, and I know all of her moves the best. She can let loose with me,” Bucky said, sitting down on the bed where Becky had just been sitting. Everyone nodded in agreement, finding their previous sitting spots from before Becky woke up, settling back down again to wait for her.  
  
Some hours later, after a physical diagnostic test which determined that her new metal arm to be working properly with the rest of her body, and her first meal in days (Natasha and Clint had gone out to get everyone dinner while they had been waiting), Becky was finally cleared and discharged from the hospital into the Avengers’ care.  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Becky's not dead!


End file.
